


Wherever I May Roam

by ddelusionall



Category: SHINee
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dystopia, Hopeful Ending, Key is pretty badass, Light Bondage, Light Dom/sub, M/M, Mentioned Kim Jonghyun, Past Character Death, Past Incest, Rough Sex, Running away from feels, Sex Toys, Taemin is a mess, mentioned Lee Jinki, one part can be thought of as dubious consent, past child prostitution
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-03
Updated: 2018-07-03
Packaged: 2019-06-01 15:14:45
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15145910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ddelusionall/pseuds/ddelusionall
Summary: Key lives on the Wall. One side represents the life he was kicked out of. The other represents the life they all think he’s living. But his life towers fifty feet in the air, three feet wide, reinforced concrete with rebar, with black tile and nothing on the Outside and with gardens, houses, and estates of those on the Inside. He lives in the dark, taking what he can when he can. He lives off his feet and his arms and his ability to stay hidden. One day, he lets himself be seen.





	Wherever I May Roam

**Author's Note:**

> I feel I have to say this so people are prepared for it. Taemin and Jonghyun are brothers in this fic, and Jonghyun died about 2 years before this fic takes place. You can hate me all you want for that, just warning you now so you don't read the story if you don't want to. People deal with their emotions in different ways and this is why I decided to do this. I will delete comments that are only there to tell me I'm wrong or a bad person, because fuck you.

_I adapt to the unknown  
Under wandering stars I have grown  
By myself but not alone  
I ask no one!  
And my ties are severed clean  
Less I have the more I gain  
Off the beaten path I reign ...._

_Where I lay my head is home._  
Wherever I May Roam - Metallica

\---

The sound of his boots on the Wall below his feet sets a steady rhythm to his night. The wind in his face reminds him that he’s still alive, despite their best efforts to the contrary. To his left is death, a fifty-foot drop onto the hard packed surface of nothing. Nothing. Nothing that stretches beyond the curve of the horizon. Land is only distinguishable from sky because of the stars. To his right is his livelihood, the Inside. He keeps his eyes open for easy access: buildings too close to the wall, trees growing near enough to jump, vines crawling up the side, or even the occasional stone or wooden ladder.

During the day, the sight of the life to the right feels like a dream.

During the night, everything is black. Save for a few lights on in the estate and beyond on streets and buildings standing within the Inside.

Key slows as something a bit darker than the surroundings looms above him. A small watch tower. There’s a camera on top of it pointing in, toward the small estate. Key presses flat against it and reaches for the well-worn hole in the concrete. It’s high up and he has to stand on tiptoes. HIs fingers curl into it. The strain is brief, just enough to lift and pull and then his foot catches the other side of the small tower and he angles his arms enough to maneuver over and around it. A small delay, but one he’s breached many times over the last few weeks.

On the other side, he continues to run. It’s tempting to stop. There is a fruit tree just on the other side of the Wall, but he’s been spotted too often in this section of the Inside, and the authorities are looking for him too often. A few times, he has even seen them on the Outside with flashlights and tasers, waiting and watching for the thief. More cameras have popped up on the towers.

So he runs. The bag on his back carries all of his possessions: an old music player with music too many years old to be remembered, a spare set of clothes, a rope and the few extra straps of leather he uses for climbing gear when he can’t safely jump, and a picture of the man who disfigured his face. So he doesn’t forget. So he knows who to throw his knife at. There’s some dry oat bars in there too, but those will be gone soon. He didn’t dare stock up before leaving like he normally does.

When he reaches an unfamiliar section of the Wall, he slows to a jog and then to a walk. He doesn’t want to slip on a loose chunk of concrete or faceplant against a stone pillar he didn’t see coming up in the dark. He has decent night vision, but lights from the Inside can cause deceiving shadows.

Key has lived on the Wall for ten years and hasn’t been all the way around it yet.

At first he thinks the sky is turning gray with the sunrise. Everything in front of him is glowing a little from light. But he checks the stars and the moon. It is still too early in the morning for the sun. He slows even more, dropping to his hands and knees and then his belly to shimmy along the Wall.

Key has never seen so many lights on in one estate before. Though estate seems like it’s too small of a word to describe the rolling hills of this area on the Inside. It might be a park, but he has never seen a park so close to the Wall before. He stops, on his belly, and observes as much as he can. Hills, trees, gardens, shrubs. There are a lot of places to hide if he wants to slink down for some exploring. The light comes from poles that follow a path through the gardens. There is an outdoor pool and a tennis court that are both empty but well lit. Beyond a stand of trees is a gleaming white building. The house? Maybe. It’s too far away to see and his binoculars are in a pouch on his side that is inaccessible in this position.

It’s definitely an estate. There is a stone watchtower about twenty feet in front of him. And there is a light on top of it. And a camera. He curses and then freezes when the camera sweeps around.

Shit. That should have been the first thing he noticed. There’s no way he can get by it without being seen. Chances are that he’s already been seen.

His best option is to keep moving, and then run if an alarm sounds.

Continuing his crawl, Key keeps his eyes on the camera. It’s pointed inwards at the moment. He carefully stands when he reaches the watchtower, pressing his chest to it. The rings of his climbing harness dig into his chest and he shifts with a wince.

And then whispers a curse. The outer side of the pillar is clean of blemishes. Not a single loose brick or chunk of siding missing. Not that he can see. The only way around it is the inner edge, the side that has the small ledge meant for maintenance of the camera. He will definitely be seen.

He has to risk it.

He pulls his black mask more securely around his face. It doesn’t hide his eyes or the part of the scar that cuts across his forehead. He keeps his face turned away from the house, where there are probably more cameras that can zoom in and identify him, and presses tight to the pillar and slides around it, his shoes just barely staying at the edge. On the other side of the pillar he releases his breath, takes another one, and just runs for the darkness of safety.

All the way there he expects an alarm or a gunshot or something.

But nothing comes, and as soon as he’s in a dimmer part of the light, he drops back down to his stomach and turns his head.

Yep. The camera is pointed directly at him. He scurries a little faster, checking every couple of feet. When the camera is no longer recording him, he stops and tries not to freak out too much. He shouldn’t still be here. He should stand and run. But his limbs are shaking too much and he really needs to calm down. Running when he’s out of control means a possible fall.

Letting both his arms and legs dangle off the side of the wall, he presses his bare forehead to the concrete and just lets the coolness seep into his skin.

A sudden change in the light has him snapping to attention.

There’s a spotlight, sudden and bright, coming from a building near the pool. The yellow glow is headed for the wall.

“Fuck the Outside,” he whispers and is on his feet in a moment, running despite the fear, despite the dangers. He’d rather take the danger of an unknown section of wall than be caught in a spotlight like that.

To his relief, the spotlight starts near the camera before moving along the wall and it’s far behind him when it suddenly stops and sweeps the other way. He sags in relief and actually sits, watching the spotlight move along the wall. It turns off suddenly.

When he can breathe again, he takes note of his surroundings. The expansive estate is to his left and a smaller estate to his right. This smaller estate is dark, like Key expects things to be. He wonders if the owner of that land is pissed because of the constant light from over their shared wall.

The wall is made of brick, not concrete. Easy to climb.

Key is tempted. The top of that inner wall is about five feet below where his feet are dangling off the Wall. And even more tempting is the large tree that stretches almost above the height of the wall. It is planted on the darker side of the brick wall. And next to it is another tree. A smaller one. But the branches are dense enough. Dense enough to hide in for a day or two.

\---

A day or two turns into a week. The dark estate seems to be completely empty. The gardens are overrun with weeds and the house is always dark. There are two lights near the back edge of the overgrown lawn that are always lit.

After a week, Key grows daring enough to slip through the shadows of the night. He doesn’t go close to the house because empty does not mean without alarms.

But there are pear trees ripe with fruit, raspberry bushes, and a few rows of carrots and peas that the animals haven’t gotten to yet. He really wants to trap one of the rabbits that share the area with him, but this close to what he is calling Paranoid Estate and he’ll be caught. It’s more food than he has had for a long time.

There are a few outer buildings. Most hold nothing more than tools. Key finds a small hand axe that he knows will come in handy cutting into the concrete. He spends a day reconfiguring his harness to make space for it on his right hip.

After another week he knows he’s been there too long. He’s pushing his luck of staying hidden. Empty does not mean abandoned completely. Someone will be by to check on the estate soon.

Key spends the day in the tree, resting in the small hammock he made of some thick material he’d found on the property. He is sleeping on and off through the heat of the day, mentally preparing for the moment when he is to leave that night.

A sudden sound on the other side has him jerking alert.

And then there’s another sound. Water.

He sits up, twists, and stares for a moment before he sees movement. In the water. Someone is swimming in the pool. It is the only activity he has seen on the estate in the two weeks he’s been there.

A lone figure. Male. Slightly darker skin, but not from being in the sun.

Key pulls out his binoculars and almost shouts out in surprise.

The man is naked. Swimming in his pool. Definitely his right, just not something Key had been expecting. He watches the man swim to the end of the pool, twist his body under the water, and then swim back. Lap after lap. Back and forth. Different strokes.

At one point he stops and floats on his back.

Key gets a good look at his face. The man is gorgeous. He’s almost too pretty with sandy brown hair and muscles all over. Every single piece of him says that he’s rich, arrogant, successful. Well taken care of. Younger than he is expecting. They’re probably close to the same age. A son of the owner of the estate? That doesn’t make sense. Why is he only coming out now? But nothing makes sense really. It’s just a man, a man swimming naked in his pool.

And not completely naked. There is a black collar around his neck with a ring right at his throat. The implications of that and the nakedness slam through Key and he bites his lip against a moan.

The man pulls himself out of the pool, arm muscles straining, and god, his ass is supreme. Key licks his lips. The man towels himself off only lightly and then falls into a deck chair. He lays in the glowing heat of the afternoon sun.

Key watches, barely breathing, and then not breathing when the man starts to stroke himself. Key should not watch this, but he can’t help it. He’s been so deprived since he came up to the Wall. And well, that was part of the reason why he was on the Wall to begin with. He’d been working at a brothel when he had to leave, when he was Marked and banished for protecting himself. He’d been tossed to the Outside. It didn’t take much longer for him to find his way up the Wall.

The man is still stroking himself, light touches that Key can almost feel himself. His other hand trails up over his body, tugs at the ring of the collar, and then pulls his own hair. His body is writhing on the chair. He’s disappointed when he suddenly turns over and Key can’t see his cock, but he can see his ass and the way he reaches behind himself, fingers on his cleft and then into his body. One and then two. There doesn’t seem to be any lubricant.

He doesn’t seem to care. His other hand is still obviously stroking himself.

Two fingers, then three, then two, and then another one. Four fingers. And then he removes his hand and he scratches into his own thigh, digging at the soft skin and leaving red welts behind. He does it again in a different place. And then again.

Key is too far away to hear his moans, but he can see the way his skin jerks.

The next set of scratches bleed, and bloody fingers go back inside his ass, Four of them again, pressed together at first and then spreading his hole wide.

Key is so involved with the sight that when the man stops and collapses on the chair, Key moans in disappointment.

But the disappointment is a bit too soon. The man stands on wobbly legs and moves toward a counter that Key is sure serves as an outdoor bar or eating area. The man leans over it, and he reaches for something out of sight. When his arm comes back into view, Key is not disappointed anymore. In his hand is a dildo. A really long, black dildo that looks almost as thick as the man’s wrist.

It takes a few tries to keep his hand steady enough and then it pushes into him, half at once, and Key is sure he hears that moan, but it’s probably just his own.

The man fucks himself with it, supported by a stiff arm on the counter. It’s fast and sloppy and the dildo falls out of him many times. But it goes right back into his gaping body in the next moment.

To Key’s delight, the man suddenly falls to his hands and knees, ass directly pointed at Key while he slides the toy under his body and starts really fucking himself with it. In this position, it doesn’t slip out of him and the man goes faster and faster, deeper and deeper until most of the large black length is buried inside him.

It’s at this point that Key decides he’s had enough with watching. With one hand, he unbuckles his belt, lowers his zipper and pulls his own dick out, stroking in time to the man on his knees, face against the stone patio.

God, that dildo is so deep inside him, and Key is so ready to fuck into him afterwards, wants to slide his dick into him. There’s no way the man isn’t bleeding, he just can’t tell from here. With a dildo that big and with such little prep, he knows the man is bleeding. Can imagine it all over his dick when he comes inside the man. Fuck he wants to. He wants to climb down the wall and just have his way with that pretty siren.

And then the man stops again and Key whines in protest. Biting his lip halfway through it. It wasn’t that loud. He knows it wasn’t.

The man holds the dildo completely inside him. Then he moves, sliding close to the counter again. He turns and sits. Actually sits. So the dildo is inside him and can’t slide out. He leans against the counter and both hands go to his dick, sliding over it. He hasn’t come yet. But god, his dick is red and throbbing. Or the red is from his hands. He’s definitely bleeding.

His hips move in a slow circle but don’t lift. He strokes himself with one hand and lifts the other to tug on his nipples and then the hoop of the collar.

God, Key wants to bite them. He continues his own strokes and is coming minutes later. He’s only half upset that he came first, because now he can watch the other man come. His breathing slows and he licks his own come from his fingers, moving the binoculars, but keeping his eyes on the gorgeous man.

It’s so fucking amazing how long he has lasted, but eventually he comes. Eventually his strokes go wild and his hips lift up and down. He comes all over his stomach. It’s a fucking long orgasm, with a heavy heavy load of come that makes Key wonder how long it’s been for him.

The man sags against the counter, barely moving. His fingers twitching and his cock till throbbing show that he isn’t dead. Or not completely.

It’s another long five minute before the man finally moves. He rolls to his hands and knees and doesn’t try to stop the he dildo from sliding out of him. Long black and thick, it leaves the man’s entrance wide open, gaping and red, definitely sore. Fuck, Key really wants to lick him clean, especially after filling that gaping hole with come.

A red rivulet streams down his pale skin. Definitely bleeding.

Fuck.

The man collapses on the stone and stays there. Naked and wrecked.

Key thinks he’s in love.

\---

A week later and Key has seen his “neighbor” two more times. The next time for a lazy wank in the garden, the only thing used to help him along was a belt that he lashed over his own chest, thighs and cock. And then in the middle of the tennis court. He walked out naked, obviously struggling to move. He went to the court, kneeled and started stroking himself off. From his ass came balls. Key wasn’t sure what kind. But they were big, about the size of tennis balls. They didn’t bounce, but hit the court with a thunk and then rolled away. There were five of them that he pushed out. As soon as the last one was out, he crawled around the court to gather them back up and shoved them back inside himself. Then he lay on his back and pushed them all out from that angle. Again and again, until he kept them in and stroked himself to completion. He did not take them out and couldn’t walk back to the house but crawled and stopped when he had to stop.

Yeah. Key is so in love.

And stupid. This is so dangerous. The man is obviously rich and influential despite being an obvious sex freak.

The thing that Key hates the most is that he never saw the man smile. He looks like he moves because he has to, not because he wants to.

He is attached, that’s for certain. Too attached to something he shouldn’t want.

He has to leave. Now. That night.

He was going to. If the man didn’t walked through the gardens at sunset and go straight for the wall. It is the first time Key has seen him clothed. He wears just plain jeans and a white T-shirt. He is barefoot. And he is still wearing the collar.

Holding his breath, Key watches as the man hits a button at the bottom of the Wall. On an access panel. It raises a ladder all the way to the top of the Wall.

Key shimmies from his tree and jogs along the small wall. He is still quiet, his noises buried under the mechanical sounds coming from the ladder. He lifts himself up to the Wall. It is dark enough for him to stay hidden. He hopes.

Or maybe he doesn’t hope. His mask covers his face. Everything but his eyes and his marred forehead. There’s no way the man knows who he is. It is safe to get closer. To ... see him. Talk to him maybe. Key has no idea what he’s thinking.

The man climbs the ladder, the muscles of his arms straining under the tight T-shirt.

And Key moves closer.

A part of his brain is yelling at him that this is so stupid. But another part of his brain is trying to convince himself that he can make the man smile. He really thinks he can. Maybe. Or maybe that doesn’t matter. Maybe it does matter.

He keeps moving. The man moves up the ladder and then their eyes meet.

The man stops, eyes going wide and Key stops, holds his hands out to show that he isn’t armed. They stare at each other for a long time, and then he keeps climbing. He gets to the top and Key notices that he’s attached with a harness. That’s good. He’d hate for the pretty man to fall.

And he’s so pretty. Looking through the binoculars did not do the man justice at all. He’s got a strong jaw line and a firm chin, but everything is softened by the roundness of his cheeks and then everything is twisted and kinked up at the black collar around his neck. God, he has blue eyes.

Key is so in love.

“I saw you,” the man whispers in a voice that is deeper than Key was expecting, “a few weeks ago, on my camera.”

Key nods.

“You came back.”

Key smirks though the man can’t see it since his mask is covering his mouth. “Sort of.”

The man fiddles with the camera and then glances over at him with an eyebrow raised. A command to continue. Key isn’t one to obey commands.

With a muffled chuckle, Key says, “I haven’t really left.” He jerks his head behind and to the side. “Your neighbor has a lot of food going to waste, so I’ve been there.”

His eyes go wide. “You’ve been in JInki’s place?”

Key doesn’t know who Jinki is. “Not in the house. I'm not stupid enough to cut off my escape routes. Just in the yard. In the trees.”

The man bites his lips and turns to look, really look, at trees he’s probably just ignored. And then his cheeks go bright red, and Key smirks again.

“Don’t be embarrassed,” Key says and takes a single step closer. “You’re gorgeous, but I think you already know that.”

The man swallows and hurries his hands with what he is doing.

“Way more gorgeous up close, though,” Key continues. “And I’m sure it’d be even hotter to see--”

“Stop,” the man snaps. “It ... shut up, if I had known ... shut up.”

Key shrugs. “It was hot. You’re hot. You fucking your wrecked asshole with--”

“Shut up,” he says again and wobbles a little on the top of the ladder.

Key shuts up. Harness or no, he’d hate to see the man fall. “Well, I’m glad I got to talk to you before I leave. Thank you at least for the great orgasms.”

“You’re leaving?”

Key nods. “It’s never too good to stay in one place so long. I was going to leave before the poolside black dildo incident.”

He flushes and looks away. “I ... I ...”

“You don’t need to explain your kinks to me. It was sexy. You are hot. Everything you’ve done to yourself, that I’ve had the privilege of seeing, was amazing.”

The man looks like he’s finished with what he’s doing. “Will you come back?”

Key says nothing.

The man looks up. “Come back.”

“Excuse me?”

“You ... just come back.”

It’s strange, too weird, and when the man starts down the ladder, Key hurries forward to stop him.

He’s too far away now to try to stop. “What the fuck?” Key shouts down to him.

“Come back,” the man shouts back. “I’ll be gone for a while, but come back.”

“You think I’m that crazy.”

“You came to talk to me, so yeah.” The man stops climbing down and then looks back up at him. “My name is Taemin. Lee Taemin.”

Key swallows roughly.

“Come back. Promise me.”

Key is so confused, but he nods. “I promise. When will you be back?”

He looks toward the house and shrugs. “If the lights are on, I’m here.”

“Okay. I’ll come back.”

And the man smiles. Lee Taemin smiles. It doesn’t reach his eyes and it’s fleeting. But it’s the prettiest thing Key has ever seen

Key tears his eyes away from it and turns around. He stares for a moment into the bleakness of the Outside. He jerks alert when the ladder moves, folding back into the ground. It’s still too light to be on the Wall, but he has to get away, as far away as he can. So he does what he does best and he runs.

\---- 6 months later -----

The inevitable happens after Key has a close call farther along the Wall. He’d grown careless, his mind only on one thing, and drawn too close to a camera without realizing it. His mask had been down around his chin and within hours, police were there, on both sides of the Wall. He had thought he’d be able to get a bit of sleep that night.

Instead, he runs, back the way he came. Ran for as long as he could.

There’s no way that he’ll be able to go that direction for a while. The police are going to start searching and following him along the Wall. It’ll be months before they gave up. If they give up.

So he runs the other way. Back.

_Back. Come Back._

After his brief encounter with Lee Taemin, Key feels restless. He hasn’t been as observant of opportunities, he’s been eating only on automatic. He isn’t really surprised that he fucked up badly enough to get the cops on his tail again.

He does not want to get close to Lee Taemin’s estate again. He doesn't. He tries to avoid that, but he feels like the cops are just an estate behind him so he keeps going.

That’s the only reason why.

There is no other reason why.

And there is no reason why he gasps in relief when he sees the lights of Lee Taemin’s estate brightening up the dark. The lights are on. Taemin is there.

Key stops and falls where he stands, landing almost too roughly on the concrete and catching himself on the edge. He can’t breathe for a little while and his head feels too light and heavy at the same time.

He gasps for what feels like hours before he can move again. The estate next to Lee Taemin’s looks more overgrown and destroyed than before. Key has no problem at all slipping down to that inner wall and moving into the trees, right back into the spot where he stayed before. His hammock is still there, as is the axe and bag of tools he left behind when he fled after meeting Lee Taemin.

He tests the knots of the hammock, tests the fabric to make sure it is secure, and then he collapses. He doesn’t look over toward the light. He doesn’t look for a lone figure in the pool or gardens or tennis courts. He sags into the hammock. And if he cries just a little, well, he doesn’t know why, so he ignores it and it didn’t happen. There’s no one to prove it anyway, because he is always alone. He wants to be alone.

Key wakes up shivering in the predawn, only a few hours since he fell asleep. His face feels dirty and his body aches. His stomach is growling. He doesn’t know if there’s any food left on the ground, and he’s not sure he wants to climb down the tree to find out. Not now anyway.

Shifting, he turns his head and finally looks at the brightened estate. The lights are a bit dimmer with the graying of the sky, but everything appears just the same as before.

There is only one thing marring the beauty of the landscape and that is a lone piece of white cloth billowing at the edge of the pool. It had gotten caught on a pole and it flutters like a flag.

It’s a shirt, Key notices once he takes out his binoculars. Just a plain white button down shirt.

Does it belong to Lee Taemin?

It better. If not, that means there’s someone else here that has the freedom to be unclothed with Lee Taemin.

Key has no right to feel jealous. But he does. A possessive flare of heat hits him in the chest. From that first day in the pool, Key has wanted to possess him.

Can he?

He thinks back to the day they talked. Lee Taemin was embarrassed. But Lee Taemin didn’t call the police. Lee Taemin didn’t run away. Lee Taemin invited him back. Demanded that he come back.

But it’s been six months. It’s been long enough that the heat of the summer had faded to the short coldness of winter and now the air is beginning to warm again. In a couple of months, it will once again be way too hot to travel during the day.

That is enough time for someone like Lee Taemin, someone obviously so attractive and rich and able to get everything he wants, to forget someone like Key, a banished, scarred, fucked up thief with no life off of the Wall.

Has Lee Taemin forgotten about him?

Key turns away from the sight of the billowing white shirt and lets himself fall asleep again. When he wakes up, he’s too hungry to do anything else. He should reserve the stolen protein bars for when he doesn’t have access to food, but he still does not want to move. So he eats one to shut his stomach up and then observes the rundown estate, keeping his back to the pristine estate now brightened by sunlight.

The entire estate looks worse for wear and Key wonders why. It’s not like the government to allow such an opulent place to stay empty for so long. There’s always someone that the government favors to put into such a large house. But the garden is overgrown, leaves and vines and tree branches lay scattered around. Dead and dying vegetables and fruit add a sickly sweet smell to everything. The backyard pool is full of dirty water and green leaves, and there is algae growing on its surface. The large house is no longer a pristine white, but a faded gray and brown. Windows are broken, and the vines on the side have grown wild up to the roof and into a few of the broken windows.

Where the humans are not, the animals are. There are more rabbits hopping about, more birds in the trees, and he’s sure that there will be predators, too: snakes, lizards, and possibly a family of foxes.

There’s a beauty to wildness, a beauty that Key understands. It is no longer manicured and maintained. It’s broken and scarred. But it still works. Just in a different way.

The first thing Key does is sharpen the small axe and check the tools to make sure they aren’t rusted from being in the trees and elements for so long. The second thing he does is map out from this vantage point the best way to return to the food sources from before, check the fruit trees and the gardens, for anything that may be edible this early in the summer season. He really wants a fire to cook some meat, but he can’t risk the smoke. He’ll go foraging tomorrow though. He’s still too tired and emotional to do it today.

So he gives up the obvious fighting and turns around and watches Lee Taemin’s estate for any signs of movement.

It’s been hours, and still that white shirt is there. He watches it, mesmerized by how something so simple can mean so many things in his heart. And in his body.

\---

It’s three days later, three days that Key spends in the wildwood of the abandoned estate, carving out a little life for himself. He stays away from the Wall during the day, only going up at night. He wants to see Lee Taemin again. He does. But he doesn’t know how to go about doing it.

Should he just drop onto his side of the inner wall and saunter up to the house? He kind of wants to. But he doesn’t want to for the fear that someone besides Taemin is in the house. Then what would happen to him? He’d be arrested almost immediately.

He needs to know if Lee Taemin is alone. He needs to know if Lee Taemin is even home. What if it’s someone else that living there now? What if Taemin lost favor with the government and has been replaced?

Key is way too cautious to just go ring the doorbell. So he waits. And he waits. And he doesn’t allow himself to be hopeful.

With the sun setting and throwing the sky into reds and oranges, fate decides that Key has waited long enough.

He’s in the hammock, facing Lee Taemin’s estate. He’s really tired. He spent a few hours cutting up some broken tree branches just in case he decided that he could risk a fire. So his eyes are half shut and he doesn’t really acknowledge the movement on the back lawn. Not at first. And then he sits up with a quiet curse.

There is a person on the sloping back lawn, just behind the house and its stand of trees.

It looks like Lee Taemin, but Key pulls the binoculars up to verify.

It is. It is Lee Taemin with longer hair and a more defined body and he’s just as naked as he was the first time Key had seen him. Complete with the collar around his neck.

Key swallows, his own throat suddenly tight.

Lee Taemin lays on the blanket. On his back for only a moment and then on his stomach. He spreads his legs and then his buttcheeks. There is already something nestled inside his body, the base of it is a bright blue.

Taemin does not touch it. He lets go of himself and then reaches up, hands gripped in the blanket. His body moves, slow undulations that will have his dick pressing down into the blanket. His knees bend a little bit, making his thighs and ass spread on their own, and Key can barely see the blue base of the toy.

Key’s dick is already hard. His breath already short, and he can’t even blink in case he misses something.

Taemin keeps up the small movements. He doesn’t speed up and Key grows impatient. How does this man manage to tease himself so well? How can he do this? Key wants to jump down there and fuck him open with whatever is already inside him.

He has no patience, so he takes out his own dick and starts stroking, biting his lip against his own moans. It’s been too long, so long. Key doesn’t try to stop his quick orgasm. He doesn’t want to. So even if all Taemin is doing is lightly thrusting against the blanket and not touching himself, Key is ready to shoot his load. He has to bite his hand to muffle his shout as his release spurts out all over the leaves and branches in front of him and his orgasm leaves him gasping.

When Key blinks his vision back to clear, Taemin still hasn’t done anything else.

Key sags back into the hammock with a groan and keeps his hand on his dick. He’s going to have more than one orgasm, that’s for certain.

Lee Taemin is such a tease. The sky has almost gone completely dark by the time he does anything else.

He finally moves, getting onto his knees. His face is pressed into the blanket and Key focuses on that. There’s sweat on his forehead and tears on his cheeks. His mouth is open, but Key can only imagine the heavy breaths and whimpers that escape him. One hand stays above his head, but the other slides down between his legs. He starts stroking himself, and Key matches his pace. It’s a bit easier to follow since that first orgasm took the edge off.

Taemin’s entire body shakes, and Key moans, when he notices that whatever is inside him is slowly coming out, being pushed out by Taemin. It’s so wide, such a large plug. It stretches Taemin’s asshole and then is sucked back into his body and Taemin shudders. The same thing happens again and Key cannot tell if Taemin just can’t push it out because his muscles are so stretched out or if he’s just teasing himself, teasing himself open with the wide toy.

Key doesn’t really fucking care. All he cares about is that he isn’t the one to do the teasing, he isn’t the one to fuck Taemin open with that toy.

Fuck, he wants to. He wants to so badly.

Key knows, just along the inner wall aways, there is a spot that he can drop down onto a grassy hill. It isn’t too high, only about eight feet. He can. He wants to. Fuck he wants to. But he stays and he watches.

Taemin teases himself again and again. The toy almost popping out and then being sucked right back into his body.

He could withstand that. He knows he could, but he makes the mistake of looking at Teamin’s face again, looking at the blissed out, fucked up, needy expression that comes from too much teasing. He’s crying, his mouth is open, and he’s probably making so many delicious noises. All of Taemin is shaking now. All of him. He’s probably going to come soon whether he likes it or not.

Again, Key could withstand that.

But then Taemin smiles, just a soft curve of his lips. HIs eyes are shut and his face is relaxed for a moment and he smiles, and Key is done for. That smile. He wants to be the one to make him smile, make him happy, give him ... something ... anything.

He knows he can’t. He knows he isn’t allowed. He knows that he has no right. But he wants to.

So he moves, tucks his dick back into his pants and fucking moves. He almost runs, but not quite, to the spot he knows that he can drop to the grass. The landing is a bit jarring, and he’s suddenly bathed in the light from the estate. But he knows where Taemin is from here, he knows the way to that grassy hill and he just hopes he isn’t too late. So he runs as fast as he can with his dick so hard and his breath on “optional.”

The first moan he hears has him stopping in his tracks, waiting for another one that comes right afterwards. Key moves, like through sludge, walking now and relearning how to breathe, but he doesn’t need to think. Not right now.

The next moan is so loud and Key hurries. He comes upon Taemin from below, just at the right angle to see his ass stretched so wide around the toy. His other hand is jerking himself off.

The toy is sucked back into his body and then pushed out again, and Key staggers up the hill. He makes it close just as the toy falls out, just as the long toy that has no business being inside anyone finally falls to the blanket, leaving Taemin’s body gaped open and red.

“Fuck,” Key whispers.

But it’s enough to have Taemin jumping in surprise, spinning around and to his ass. He winces and scrambles back and Key shakes his head and follows him. Taemin is too fucked and wrecked to move fast and Key takes advantage of that, grabbing one ankle and then the other, and he yanks Taemin toward him, the blanket bunching up as well.

Key falls to his knees, and ignores the way Taemin fights him, ignores the way he tries to break away. But Key’s grip is too strong. He dangles on concrete ledges and climbs walls for a living, so there’s no way that Taemin can get out of his grip without breaking his ankle.

Key wants to touch, he wants to hurt and kiss and love, but right now, he wants to come and he wants to come inside Taemin’s wrecked asshole.

He hadn’t zipped up, so it’s easy to yank his dick out of his pants, and he yanks Taemin toward him in the same moment.

“Don’t, don’t, don’t,” Taemin mutters, arms and body flailing. God, his muscles are insane.

Key has both legs in his arms, at his elbows and Taemin bent in half. He leans forward, his dick sliding on wet skin. It’s only a moment and then he’s inside Taemin’s open body. It’s not tight, not at all, but that’s not the point.

Taemin cries out and tries to move away, but Key’s got him.

“Stop, stop, stop, please ... stop.”

Key ignores him and thrusts a little harder, slapping their bodies together. Taemin’s breath hitches with little noises, but he stops protesting. Key reaches down and grips Taemin’s dick to stroke him off. Taemin’s little whimpers are interrupted by moans.

Key uses his other hand to grab the ring on the collar and yank. Taemin’s scream is just what he needed and apparently so is the pain. Taemin’s hands dig into Key’s forearms and Key twists pulls harder, twisting the ring and cutting off Taemin’s breath before letting go and twisting the other way.

Taemin writhes under him, his body moving with Key’s thrusts. He lets go of the collar and Taemin’s head slams to the grass. Instead of that, Key pinches at his nipples and his stomach, all over his chest, leaving bright red marks anywhere that he can touch. The pain seems to do it for him. His moans turn to tight screams, and he was so close already that he’s shuddering and spraying his release between them.

That’s when his body tightens up. Just enough, and Key yanks himself back, hands on the back of Taemin’s firm thighs, fingers digging into the muscles, and he thrusts faster, racing for his own release and watching while Taemin’s cock bounces and jerks around, still pulsing out come while his body orgasms.

Key tilts his head back, eyes shut as he finally comes. He doesn’t release nearly as much as Taemin, but he pumps it into Taemin’s body the way he wanted to and pulls out at the last moment to cover his balls and gaping rim with a few heavy dollops of come. He strokes himself, only noticing now that his dick, and now his hand, are streaked with blood.

And then he collapses on top of him. His brain is dead. His lungs have forgotten how to breathe. And he can’t hear anything except a wooshing in his brain.

For a moment. And then he’s aware of cries. Of Taemin crying and he lifts up his head to see Taemin hiding his face and his body shivering with tears.

And that’s not what Key wanted. He wanted to make him smile. Not make him cry.

Key pushes at his arms and Taemin yells something and fights him, trying to smack at his face and his shoulder.

“Fuck, calm down, what the fuck?” Key says and he finally gets his hands around Taemin’s wrists and pins them above his head.

“Get off me!” Taemin shouts and tries to throw him off. But the movement only makes Key’s body adjust enough that his dick is right back inside Taemin’s wrecked body.

Taemin’s chest hitches and he shuts those pretty blue eyes. He stops struggling and Key leans over him. His body is sore from being on his knees, but he doesn’t want to let go. Taemin will run away from him.

“You ... you were gone for a long time,” Taemin finally whispers.

“I wasn’t going to come back,” Key replies honestly.

Taemin turns his head to the side and Key finally releases his wrists. Both arms come up to wrap around Key’s back.

“This ... fuck ...” Taemin’s tears are renewed and Key gathers him up, hands under his back to pull him into a tight hug. The movement causes his dick to move in and out of Taemin again, and he fights off a shiver.

“You really scared me,” Taemin said. “I didn’t realize it was you for a moment.”

Key apologizes against his neck.

“Why didn't you want to come back?” Taemin asked.

Key doesn’t really want to answer that. At least not truthfully. “I’m banished,” he says. “You’re obviously someone influential. I didn't want to get caught, turned into the police.”

Taemin pulls away from him, a questioning look on his face. “Banished?”

Key swallows roughly and nods. He lifts up a hand and pulls the mask off his face. He ruffles the long hair that falls over his forehead and pushes it back to bare his soul, his past, and his present. It’s stupid. Taemin might turn right around and call the police. But laying here with his dick still buried in him, Key takes the chance.

Taemin’s eyes widen and he lifts up a shaking hand, but he doesn’t touch. Their eyes meet, and Key gives him permission. Soft fingertips trace the scar, from above his left eyebrow, down the bridge of his nose, over his right cheek and curling down under his ear to his jaw.

“They cut this into my face and then told me that I deserved even more pain, so they left it open and bleeding and promised me they’d do the other line of the X in a day or two. I ran instead.”

Taemin swallows roughly. “What ... what did you do?”

“I was paying for the sins of my parents,” Key says and shrugs. “I don’t know what they did. But I was taken from school and put into a brothel. I killed a client who was too rough with me. I didn’t mean to. I was defending myself, but that was enough to be banished. They kept me in the cages near the Gate. It was easy to pick the lock and slip by the officers to the Outside. I found a place to climb up a few weeks later.”

“You must have been so hungry.”

Key nods. “I was, but also determined and stubborn. I’ve been living on the Wall for ten years.”

“How old are you?” Taemin asks.

“Twenty-three. You?”

Taemin bites his lip and says, “Nineteen now.”

Key smiles and touches his cheek. “I’m sorry I scared you. I wasn’t thinking, but that’s mostly your fault because ...” He turns and looks pointedly at the giant plug that shouldn’t even be able to fit into someone’s body. Or at least, not Taemin’s who was strong, but skinny. Lithe. Well toned. Gorgeous. 

Key looks him over, at his flushing skin. There are red marks on his stomach and a few lines that look like rope burns on his wrists and ankles.

“So what about you?” Key asks.

“What about me?”

“Well, you know my entire life.” Which is pretty sad and depressing if Key thinks about it.

Taemin pouts and then shuts his eyes with a sigh. “Are you hungry? Do you want to come inside and get something to eat?”

Key sighs at the change of subject and then realizes what he just said. “Inside? You ... you want me to come inside?”

Taemin smiles. “Yes. Come inside. You’re probably starving, and I don’t think you understand how much you stink. When was the last time you showered?”

Key snorts. “You don’t want to know.”

“Do you want to?”

The thought of a hot shower was more tempting than the food. “S-sure.”

Taemin smiles and pushes at his hips. Key finally crawls off of him. He takes a moment to tuck his dick into his pants and zip up. He pushes himself up and turns to offer a hand to Taemin, but he’s already busy, on his hands and knees, sliding the tip of the plug around his entrance, and through the mess of come Key had left on and inside him. With a sigh, Taemin pushes it into himself, and Key’s cock twitches in his jeans at the dirty slurp it makes when it finds it way home.

Taemin’s moan as the toy is sucked all the way into his body is delicious.

Key balls his hands into fists so he won’t touch. He wants to touch. He watches Taemin on the ground, taking deep breaths, his back arching and bowing while he toy settles inside him. And then everything tense and Taemin pushes himself up and onto his feet. Key is expecting him to wobble, so he’s there when Taemin does and he wraps his arms around Taemin’s bare waist.

“Are you all right?” Key whispers.

Tae’s smile is fleeting and he nods. “For now. Come on.” He doesn’t pull away but walks toward a cobbled walkway with Key clinging to his body. Key follows. He knows he would follow Taemin anywhere.

The cobbled walkway curls around small flower gardens and patches of grass all the way to the back patio of the estate house. There are multiple balconies and large picture windows, all of which had been blocked by the large stand of trees between the house and the yard. The house is so white, lights glaring on it, the walls are just straight white. Like someone had frosted it with a steady hand.

Key has to let go of Taemin when he starts up a set of stairs. He moves slowly, Key understands why, that plug moving and twisting inside him.

“How long were you in the brothel before you left?” Taemin asks.

“Two years.”

“That’s ... a long time for a child.”

Key snorts. “I wasn’t a child at that point.”

Taemin continues up to a balcony on the top floor. A sliding glass door already stands open, white curtains billowing in the small breeze.

Key is hit with a blast of cold air that has him shivering. Right, air conditioning. It’s too cold definitely.

Taemin is unperturbed and walks to the other side of a room lit only with a small lamp. He turns on an overhead light that is almost too bright, like the lights that reflect from the house. They stand on opposite sides and Key looks around.

They are in a bedroom, one that is obviously lived in. It probably is Taemin’s.

The bed is larger than Key has ever seen, with sheets that are light blue and green and pillows and a blanket a darker shade of blue. The bed is messy and there are clothes strung about the floor. There is a sitting area nearer to where Taemin stands and a couch near a large window that overlooks the back of the grounds. It’s hard to really see outside from here.

“There’s a bathroom through that door,” Taemin says and points to a door. “You can go shower and ... whatever you’d like and I’ll bring up something to eat.”

“Don’t you want to shower?” Key asks.

Taemin shrugs. “Not really. There aren’t supposed to be any servants around today, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t cameras. Please don’t leave the room.”

Key isn’t planning on it.

Taemin kind of smiles and slips out of a door.

Key stays where he is for another moment and takes in his surroundings in more details. There are tables but are no dressers or wardrobes, but he’s sure that the other door he can see will lead to a closet. On the wall are pictures of landscapes.

The most interesting thing though, are the hooks on the ceiling. They look like they held lamps at one point, but after watching Taemin kink out on his own body, he’s sure they hold a different use. Especially when he sees matching hooks protruding from the wall at the head of the bed and a series of them on the floor.

Key wonders how many times Taemin has tripped over them. And how many times he’s been tied up on them.

He wanders around the room, taking in more details of little things like a laptop, a cell phone, and a television that appears when a wall panel slides over. There are _personal_ items strewn about the floor too. Cock rings, cock cages, dildos, vibrators, plugs, leather straps and ropes.

Taemin is a kinky little shit. Though, Key already knew that.

On the bed is a small framed picture of two people. One is Taemin when he was much younger and the other is another man, smiling widely, almost laughing, his eyes crinkled and his face soft. He’s ruggedly handsome and obviously strong, the picture shows off his biceps. It looks like it was a selfie. Taemin is staring at the man with such love in his eyes that Key’s heart hurts. There’s no way this man is still in his life. Taemin is not this happy anymore.

He puts the picture back on the bed and then enters the bathroom. It looks like the designer tried a little too hard to pull in a nautical theme. But that just means there are more hooks and more ropes and lots of places to tie up a willing victim.

Key easily imagines Taemin strapped spread eagle to the tile wall with his arms tied to what are actually towel hooks. The walls are ocean blue and everything is dark and comforting. There’s a separate water closet and a tub and shower that is almost more like a room. The pattern in the smooth counters look like ocean waves. As with the bedroom, there are sex toys scattered everywhere and there’s even a dildo stuck to the floor near the bathtub.

It has been way too long since Key last had a shower. He takes off his jacket first, and then his T-shirt. His boots, belt and then his pants. He slides the tight underwear off his body and wonders if Taemin has some place that he can clean them.

Key is not comfortable being naked, not really anymore. But he knows better than to ruin his leather harness. It’s two pieces that Key has learned to attached together to make one piece. It’s easy to take off, in case he needs to. A single buckle on the top shoulder gives him enough slack to slip it off. In this case, he removes all the buckles that keep it on. The right shoulder, the left hip, and one on his lower back. The leather is his best friend and his protector. He has used it often to keep from falling off the Wall and into the Outside.

He really hates being naked and vulnerable.

He goes to the shower first, starting the water. It falls from a single shower head in the top of the ceiling. There are more shower heads but that one is probably the best. He lets the water run while he uses the bathroom and he takes the opportunity to root around the cupboards for a toothbrush. He finds one, and he also finds more sex toys and a two drawers of lube. After brushing his teeth, he steps into the shower. The water is warm and feels so good on his skin. He just soaks under the spray for a long time. He washes himself twice, the first time to get most of the grime off his skin and the second time to enjoy it.

And he does enjoy it. Being clean. It’s the only thing he misses about living on the Wall.

The towels are so soft.

He doesn’t bother with putting his clothes back on because they’re filthy and now that he’s clean he can actually smell how much they stink.

He leaves the bathroom and stops in his tracks.

Taemin is on the bed, still naked, one leg bent at the knee and both arms thrown above his head. He isn’t doing anything, but Key can still see the blue toy in his ass.

“There’s food on the table,” Taemin says.

“You look like food.”

Taemin flashes him a smile, though it’s a little pained. “Should I put on clothes?”

“You don’t have to.”

“Good, I don’t like wearing clothes.”

“I’ve noticed. I don’t like being naked.”

“Why not?”

Key tilts his head to the side and tells the truth. “It makes me feel vulnerable, and I don’t like that.”

“It makes me feel wanted.”

“Well, I definitely want you.”

Taemin smiles, but it’s tight and he more smiles up at the ceiling than at Key. “You never told me your name.”

Key chuckles. “I didn’t, did I? Sorry. It’s Key.”

“Key ....”

“Just Key.”

“But you--”

“I may have had another name before, but now it’s just Key. The other one died as soon as they put this mark across my face.”

“That’s ... kind of selfish?” He sounds unsure but also determined.

Key doesn’t reply. He sits on the padded chair by the table and tries not to salivate over all the food. There’s no possible way he can eat all this meat, the noodles, the bread. It’s too heavy and he isn’t used to it. But he certainly tries. Starting with the meat, he needs meat more than anything else. He doesn’t get enough of it. The noodles feel heavy in this throat when he swallows the first bite, so he doesn’t eat more of those. There are vegetables that he hasn’t seen or eaten in years.

“Thanks for this,” Key says in between bites of broccoli. “I usually live on fruit or what I can steal during the night.”

“You haven’t eaten much,” Taemin says with worry.

Key smiles. “I don’t eat a lot anymore. I’ve gotten used to it. If I try to eat more, I’ll be sick.”

Silence falls and Key eats a bit more. Because there is a piece of cake. And he can’t even think of the last time he had something sweet. He hears Taemin rise from the bed and a door shut. A couple minutes later the door opens and Taemin asks, “Do you want me to wash your clothes or burn them? You can take something of mine.”

“Since you never wear them?” Key asks with a grin over his shoulder.

Taemin smiles and says, “Yeah. I seriously hate clothes. I’m in suits most of the day--”

“Sexy.”

“--and it’s just so much better to be naked.” He disappears behind the other door and reappears with a pile of black clothes. Setting them on a chair, he says, “You can take what you want.”

“Including you?” Key asks.

Taemin blushes and looks away. “I ... I ...”

Key stands up and moves through the room to him. His footsteps are even quieter on the carpet than they are on the concrete of the Wall, and when he touches Taemin’s side, he jumps and yelps.

“Fuck, I didn’t ... hear ... you. Fuck.”

Key smiles and moves close to him, into his space and Taemin stands really still, Key winds his hands around Taemin’s shoulders. He’s just a little taller than Taemin, almost a perfect height.

“I’ve made my intentions known,” Key says. “I want you. I’ve spent the last six months dreaming of all the things I could do to you and I want to do them. You’re no stranger to sex, so it’s just if you want me or not. I already forced myself on you once, I won’t again.”

Taemin shuts his eyes and says, “I ... do, it’s just that ... I haven’t had sex with another person in this room for a really long time.”

Key can tell there are emotions buried in that. Maybe because of the guy in that picture.

“We don’t have to,” Key says. “We left the blanket outside.”

“It’s okay. I like ... I like being pressed into a bed so much.”

Key shivers. “Let me press you into the bed then.”

Taemin smiles and says, “Will you wear that harness?”

“My climbing harness?”

Taemin snorts. “Is that what you use it for?”

“Yes, and it’s saved my life a few times.”

“I’d like it if you’d wear it. I bet it looks really sexy on you.”

Key shrugs. “Okay. I like it a lot.”

“I didn't notice it before. You wear it under your clothes?”

Key nods. “Yeah, over my shirt it causes weird bunching and it makes it harder to move. It’s easier to pull my shirt off when I need to use the harness. I don’t need it very often, but I like having the leather and the metal of the rings on my skin.”

“I know how that feels. The leather is a little worn.”

“I ran out of oils for it.”

“I’ll give you some.”

“Thank you.”

“Can I kiss you now?”

Key laughs. “I was about to ask you the same thing.”

Taemin’s smile falters for a moment and then he cups the back of Key’s head and pulls them together for a kiss. It’s too heavy and too wet and too crazy for the kiss Key wanted. He moves his hands to Taemin’s cheeks and holds him still.

“Slow down,” he breathes into his mouth, and Taemin shivers, but obeys, kissing with lips instead of tongue, kissing soft instead of sloppy.

Taemin sags against him and put his face in Key’s neck. “You smell much better.”

Key chuckles. “Thank you.”

“I’ll be right back. Don’t sit. I want you to wear the harness.”

Key nods. “I’ll be right here.”

Taemin turns away from him and goes back into the bathroom. Key stays where he is, but glances around. Some of the things from before are cleaned up. There aren’t as many sex toys lying around, the clothes are no longer strewn about, but the most obvious is that picture. The one of Taemin and the other guy. It’s gone.

Taemin returns with the clinking pile of Key’s harness. He holds it out, but Key goes for a kiss instead and tugs at the ring on the collar. Taemin sighs into his mouth and when Key pulls away, he’s smiling. Just what he wanted.

“Go lay on the bed,” Key whispers and takes the harness.

“You don’t need help?”

Key shakes his head. “If I needed help getting it on, I’d be in trouble.”

Taemin nods and brushes by him to lay on the bed. Key watches until he’s comfortable, right in the middle with his legs spread invitingly, his upper body propped up on elbows. He definitely looks edible and Key really plans on eating him.

He turns his attention to the harness because he can already feel his cock growing under the towel. The top of the harness slides over his left arm, the straps settling in their spots over his shoulder and under his shoulder blade. At the front, the leather, falls over his muscles, but doesn't quite go low enough to hit his nipple. Key wraps the lower part around his stomach, anchoring his body at the curve of his waist with a thick layer of leather. He buckles it up tight, the metal rings along the length of it are cool on his skin warmed by his shower. On the left side, the two main pieces are already connected, but not on the right, and Key twists his arm up, the end of the buckle in his hand and shrugs into the other shoulder part of the harness. He buckles the two pieces together, leaving a strip of leather across his collarbones and one across his ribs, below his nipples, his shoulders almost encased, and a piece of leather on each side of his front that connect to the thick strip at his waist.

“Wow,” Taemin breathes. “It looks really good on you.”

Key smirks over at him. “Thank you.”

“Are you going to lose the towel?”

Key rolls his eyes. “Are you going to lose the attitude?”

“Rich, coming from you.”

“That mouth--”

“You didn’t gag me, so it’s not my fault.”

Key laughs. “I’m sure you have a gag somewhere, but I’d much rather kiss you.”

“Please,” Taemin says, eyes losing their happiness and he stretches his arms out.

Key crawls onto the bed and lets their lips touch. He can tell that Taemin is nervous that Taemin wants this but doesn’t want this and that he’s confused. 

“I’m sorry before,” Key whispers and kisses his jaw and his chin, “when you told me to stop and I didn’t listen to you. I should have listened to you.”

“It’s just because I was scared and I didn’t know it was you,” Taemin assures him. “Now I know it’s you. I won’t tell you to stop.”

“You can,” Key says firmly. “If I do something you don’t want or something that--”

“There’s nothing that you can do to me that hasn’t already been done to me.”

Key cups his face and makes their eyes meet. “That doesn’t mean you want it. Tell me. Promise me. Tell me if I go too far.”

Taemin shrugs. “You won’t, but okay.”

They kiss again, and Key takes his time. He can tell by the little breaths and the way Taemin moves under him that Taemin is uncomfortable. He isn’t used to being kissed, but he likes it.

Key really likes it, so he settles on top of him, their legs tangled in a way that Key is pinning him down. One of Taemin’s hands sneaks over to his hip and he shifts, letting him pull the towel away. He doesn’t mind that at all and settles his naked lower half against Taemin’s.

“Is that toy still inside you?” Key whispers.

Taemin’s cheeks redden and he shakes his head. “I ... took it out in the bathroom.”

“Good. I was getting a little jealous of it.”

A startled laugh escapes his lips and Key just has to kiss his smile again. And Taemin is a bit more relaxed. Lets himself touch and run his hands up and down Key’s back and over his ass and thighs. He loves getting his fingers stuck on the rings of the harness. Key loves the touches. It’s been way too long since someone just touched him to touch him.

“Do you know that you’re beautiful?” Key asks.

“Do you?” Taemin shoots back with red cheeks.

Key smiles. “I’m not. But you--”

“You are.”

“I guess we’ll both agree that we’re both beautiful. Even if you’re prettier.”

Taemin pulls him down for another kiss. And he seems to be done with slow and sensual if the way his legs wrap around Key are any indication. Key doesn’t mind, not really. He especially doesn’t mind when Taemin rolls his hips in a well-trained, obvious way, and Key’s erection slides into the wet mess of his gaping asshole.

Key moans into his mouth and jerks his hips forward, burying himself completely. “Fucker,” Key gasps. “I was going to play with you.”

Taemin laughs and rocks his hips into Key’s movements, continuing to tug and pull on the harness. Key loves the feel of it on his skin, the coolness of the metal rings, the softness of the leather. It’s quiet between them, only the sound of their lips parting and the bed moving, the rustling of the sheets. There’s a moan in the kiss and Key thinks it’s from Taemin, but he can’t really tell.

And then Key huffs, eyes shut tight and his body stilling for a moment. He stays buried inside Taemin, hips only moving forward to pump out his release into Taemin’s body.

“God,” Key gasps as soon as he has the breath for talking.

Taemin trails his fingers along the edges of the harness. “Good?”

“Yeah. Feel ... feel like I got the better end of that round.”

Taemin chuckles. “Maybe, but now you can do things to me.”

Key lifts his head. “What things?”

He’s met with only a smile as an answer. And then he unlocks his ankles from Key’s back and lowers his legs. Key moans as he slips from his body.

“You can do anything to me,” Taemin says and twists up and to the side. He pushes up to his knees, head on the bed, arms spread out to his sides. His knees slide open and Key watches, transfixed, as a stream of his release pulses out of Taemin’s battered rim.

“Anything?”

Taemin shrugs. “Whatever you want.”

Key knows what he wants. At least at first. He grips both asscheeks in his hands, squeezing until Taemin whines and then spreads him apart. He leans down and licks at the mess of his body, shivering at the combined taste of come, lube and blood. He swirls his tongue around the swolled rim, easily penetrating him.

“Where ... where do you want my hands?” Taemin whispers.

Key pulls away with a dirty slurp and inserts a finger into him instead. The muscles clench but don’t clamp down. He’s too fucked open for that. “On your dick, stroking, but you aren’t allowed to come.”

Taemin moans but obeys instantly. And with boths hands, so his face is smashed into the bed with no way to hold himself up.

Key goes back to his treat, sliding a second finger in while licking around the rim. He knows that he’s a little fucked up and depraved for loving the taste of Taemin’s abused body, loving the way the blood, lube and come mix on his tongue. He’s surprised there isn’t anything else flavoring his hole, but he shouldn’t be. Taemin obviously keeps himself clean.

And shaved. There’s not a speck of hair on his ass or his balls or his legs.

Key has three fingers spinning around his body when Taemin finally begs.

“Key, please, please.”

“What do you need?” Key asks with lips against his ass.

“Full, need ... need to be full.”

“Then be patient. I'm enjoying my after dinner treat.”

Taemin moans. His body sags a little, spreading his legs open. Like a good boy, he’s still stroking himself. Whoever got to him first certainly trained him well. Key is sure that if their positions were reversed, he’d already come a few times.

Not that he’d let himself be so vulnerable. Not for someone he just met. Probably not ever.

“You have such pretty skin,” Key says with his lips against the smooth skin of his thigh. He slips in his pinky and twists his wrist to get it inside him so deep his knuckles are pushing past his rim. He likes the sound of Taemin’s moan, but wants something a little louder, so he bites down on this thigh and sucks. Hard.

Taemin cries out in surprise, jerking forward and falling away from Key and his fingers.

Key doesn’t even bother to reprimand him with words, just goes straight for his ass and starts spanking him with the hand that had almost been buried in his ass. Taemin’s hands are still under his body, probably still around his dick, and he’s moving, thrusting into them with every sharp spank that Key lands on his ass.

There seems to be a moment when he should stop, when both asscheeks are bordering on a too dark red, but his hands don’t hurt yet, and Taemin is crying, physically crying with his face mushed into the bed, and it looks so nice, he’s so pretty with his face as flushed as his ass and his abused asshole clenching for something to fill it.

Key decides not to keep him waiting and grips his bruising ass and slides his dick back inside him.

Taemin moans his name.

“Hands behind your back,” Key demands.

He’s impressed how quickly Taemin obeys. Key takes both of his hands and bends them at the elbow, pushing his hands between his shoulder blades. He holds them there in a firm grip of one hand. The other hand grips Taemin’s hip and yanks his ass a little higher. He bends under the direction, knees pressed tight to the bed, hips curled and ass in a perfect spot for Key to thrust into.

He watches his dick for a moment, going in and out of his body, pulling at his rim and then shoving it back in. The lube has almost dried up and it’s not a smooth slide anymore, but a rough drag, Key is planning on adding to the mess soon, so he doesn’t pause to add any more.

Taemin looks so good with his ass full of bright red handprints, his rim swollen and torn, and his face full of tears.

The noises from his throat sound like words. Sort of. Key thrusts faster to keep him from thinking, from talking, from breathing. His head is turned at a weird angle and his back keeps arching to try to stretch out his arms. His knees lift from the bed, almost making Key slip from him.

“No,” he says and smacks his thigh. “You hold still.”

“Can’t ... can’t ... I ... can’t.”

“You can and you will. You’re already in this position because you couldn’t hold still before. Now, hush.”

“Key, please, stop, just ...”

“Hush,” Key says again and hits his thigh even harder.

Taemin is trembling, and he worries for a moment, but really this is nothing compared to what Key has seen him do to himself. There are rope burns on his wrists for fuck’s sake.

But Taemin keeps whimpering, keeps crying, but he doesn’t say anything else.

Key shifts his body, sitting back on his knees, and he finally lets go of Taemin’s wrists to yank his ass back onto his cock.

“Move. Make me come with your slutty stretched out asshole.”

Taemin whines, but does as he is told. He tucks his elbows under his body and jerks himself back and forth, fucking himself on Key’s dick.

Key doesn't move his hips even if it’s hard to stay still, and he uses his hands to show Taemin how well he’s doing, just soft touches up and over his back and down his bright red ass.

“Good boy. So good. You’re so good, Taeminnie.”

He wails and stutters. “K-K-Key, I ... K-Key ...”

“Don’t come, Taemin. You don’t have permission.”

He shakes his head frantically. “I need ... Please. Please.”

“No, Taemin.” Key spanks his ass.

“Key!”

“No!” Key growls and reaches for the collar, gripping it tight and yanking it back, stealing Taemin’s breath. “No. Now move faster.”

Taemin’s whimpers are back to real cries, sobs with tears on his cheeks as he thrusts back faster, showing his desperation in his unrestrained movements. Glorious, glorious movements. Tamein may not be very tight, but his body is warm and slick and still pulsing and clenching around him.

Key doesn’t even tried to hold himself back and comes inside his ass again, gripping tight to the collar and a hip to still Taemin, keeping himself buried while he pulses out his release.

Taemin whimpers again, the sound mostly in relief, but also full of a begging noise that has Key’s head swimming. He stays still until he can sort of breathe again and then he pulls out, stretching Taemin’s rim with his swollen dick. Come seeps from him and Key licks his lips.

“Turn over,” Key says with a smack to his ass.

Taemin falls to his side and then slowly rolls over. His movements are jerky, but eventually he gets there.

“Grab your knees, spread your slutty hole for me.”

Taemin swallows and lifts his legs, hooking his knees at his elbows and his fingers grip the sore edges of his ass and spread himself open, his legs in the air.

Key shimmies down to the bed. He rolls his hips on the soft mattress, his dick still sensitive and shooting pleasure through his body. He starts with his tongue again, diving into the gaping entrance and sucking at the sore rim to lick at all the come and blood.

“Stop, please, stop, stop, stop, stop.”

Key doesn’t, not at first, and then, Taemin’s cries are a little louder and his voice a bit harsher when he suddenly says, “P-per-persimmon.”

And Key stops, because he knows that word intimately, and he’s even said it a few times. It’s a standard, policy-required safeword at the brothels on the Inside, and Key ended up killing a man because he hadn’t stopped when Key told him to. He has scars on the back of his thighs from the knife that Key had shoved into the man’s throat after a struggle.

Crawling up to his face, Key coos at Taemin and lets him lower his legs and sag gratefully into the bed.

“Sorry,” Taemin gasps. “I’m sorry. I’m ... I’m sorry.”

“Shh, gorgeous. Shh, there’s no reason to apologize for ever using a safeword. I should have known to ask for yours before we even started. That’s my fault. I’m really glad you knew that one.”

Key kisses him. Soft touches to his open mouth, his cheeks, his chin, until Taemin has calmed his sobs to hiccups. His skin is sweaty and his entire body is shuddering.

“Do you need me to make you come?” Key whispers. “I can suck you off?”

Taemin shakes his head. “Just ... just touch me, give me permission.”

“Are you sure?”

Taemin nods. “I ... I can come on command, usually.”

“Sexy.”

Taemin’s smile is fleeting and then lost in Key’s lips. He keeps the kiss steady and grips Taemin’s cock, stroking slowly at first and then speeding up. Taemin’s breath goes short and his body keeps shaking while trying to thrust into Key’s hand.

“You can come, beautiful. Come, Taemin-ah. You’re allowed. You can come. I want you to come.”

Taemin’s clings to him, breaks away from his mouth and cries out, his body curling up and then going flat as his cock pulses. Key strokes him a little faster, a little firmer, and then he’s coming, thick heavy strips of come, lots of them painting up and over his smooth abs and getting Key’s side all covered in it too. He keeps stroking until the last eager pulse curls over his fingers.

And then he brings his hand to his mouth and licks it clean.

“God, you taste good,” Key whispers.

Taemin’s chest hitches and he covers his face with an arm. He’s still crying and Key wipes the rest of the mess onto the bedsheets and cuddles back into him, talking nonsense to him about being safe and being okay and being so good. 

“You’re so good, Taemin-ah, so good. You’re such a good boy.”

Taemin suddenly turns on his side, yanking Key to him and hugging him tightly. “I thought ... I thought ... I’m sorry.”

Key hushes him again and smacks his ass lightly. “You hush. I told you it was okay. You don’t need to apologize.”

“I ... I ...”

“Do you want a bath? We can go take a bath.”

Taemin stills and then nods carefully. “I’d like a bath.” His words stop, just cut off, like he was going to call Key something and then didn’t. Something like Master.

Who did Taemin used to call Master?

“I’ll go fill the tub, okay?”

“In ... in a moment.”

Key smiles and presses a kiss to his shoulder. He lets Taemin cling to him and uses his free hand to trace up and around his side and shoulder.

“I’ve got you,” Key whispers. “You’re okay. Everything is okay. And you’re so pretty, and so good. You obeyed me so well, darling. You’re such a good boy.”

It’s a few more minutes of Key muttering before Taemin physically relaxes and his tears stop and he just breathes against Key’s shoulder.

“Okay,” Taemin whispers. “You ... you ...”

“I’ll go fill up the tub,” Key says, understanding that Taemin is not in a place to be telling him what to do. “Stay and rest, beautiful.”

Taemin buries his face in a pillow and barely moves when Key gets out of the bed. His legs fucking ache from the position he’d been in, but he staggers his way to the bathroom and starts the water in the tub. He uses only hot water because he’s sure it’s going to take a long time to get Taemin to the tub and he wants it warm when that happens. He finds some bath bombs and tosses in one that smells like lemon and one that smells like flowers.

There are more towels in a cupboard and a set of matching aqua green robes. He hangs them on one of the hooks for after their bath.

While the bath finishes filling, Key uses a washcloth to clean the come and blood and lube off his body.

When he returns to the room, Taemin is still crying, though not sobbing, just silent tears down his cheeks. Key kneels in front of him and touches his arm and says his name.

Taemin’s eyes are full of hurt. But it’s old pain. Demons that he can’t stop from taking over his mind.

“The bath is full. Let’s go.”

Taemin struggles to stand, and Key wishes he were a bit taller and stronger so he could carry Taemin instead of making him walk. But they shuffle through the large room and into the warm air of the tub.

“Let me wipe you clean,” Key says, steading him against the counter. He presses a kiss to his shoulder before letting go to get another washcloth. Taemin’s sniffles echo in the bathroom while Key cleans him. Taemin’s fingers trace around the harness that Key totally forgot he was wearing. He reaches for the collar on his neck, and Taemin grabs his wrist and shakes his head.

“Leave ... leave it on.”

Key tilts his head and nods. He wonders if Taemin ever takes it off.

He helps Taemin into the tub, his skin pinking at the heat still lingering in the water. Taemin watches him intently as he shrugs off the harness and lets it clink to the floor. And then climbs in with him, making Taemin scoot up so he can settle behind him.

The water feels amazing. Way better than his shower earlier. He rests his head on the curled edge of the tub and smiles when Taemin relaxes against him.

“I’m sorry,” Taemin whispers again.

“Don’t be.”

“I should be. I ... I ...”

“You don’t owe me any explanations,” Key says and twists his nipple for good measure.

“But ... I do. I feel like ... I should ... I ... You asked me earlier about my life, and I didn’t answer, and I should answer, so maybe you’ll understand why I’m so fucked up and when I ask you to stay, you know that you can’t and I know you won’t.”

“Stay?”

Taemin bites his lip. “My father is in the housing sector of the government.”

“Hence the estate. Got it.”

“Yeah. I ... I’m supposed to be his heir, but I don’t ... I don’t know how to do anything. My hyung ... he was, he was next in line.”

“What happened to him?”

Taemin swallows. It takes awhile before he can say, “He died. They said he killed himself.”

“Fuck, sorry. I’m ... I’m sorry.”

Taemin shakes his head and continues in a small, broken voice. “We were best friends, the best kind of friends, and he ... he loved me. I was greedy. But he gave me what I wanted. It was my fault. It’s my fault that he died.”

“Why do you think it’s your fault?” Key asks gently.

Taemin sits up, upper body out of the tub and covers his face with his hands. “I ... we ... well, we fell in love with Jinki.”

“Your neighbor?”

Taemin nods again. “He was ... he’s perfect. I still see him, sometimes, but he wants nothing to do with me, not after ... he loved us both. He was so in love with both of us, and he caught us together one night, out in the yard, said he saw us together and he begged us, begged us to try to be with him too. He’d do anything we asked.”

“Wait. Saw you and your hyung together? Like fucking?”

Taemin winces. “We lived in this house by ourselves,” he whispers. “We ... we were always close and that closeness just went ... the wrong direction, I guess. But it never felt wrong. It was always right. But I loved him. He knows I loved him. Jinki was just different. I don’t love JInki, not anymore. But then I did, and Jonghyun let him join us even if that caused a lot of jealousy from him, but Jinki was so nice and so kind and he won Jonghyun over eventually. All three of us were lovers for more than a year.”

“Did Jinki tell someone about you and your hyung?”

“No, he still hasn’t. Not even to this day. But Jonghyun ... we forgot to turn off a camera, I guess. Or one of the staff caught us. Someone told. Someone found out. Someone told our father that Jonghyun was raping me.”

“Raping ...”

“He had videos of our sessions, of Jonghyun tying me up, whipping me, all sorts of things. My father had Jonghyun arrested, and I was sent to counseling and was told that Jonghyun manipulated me. I almost believed it. And then Jinki refused to see me. He was so heartbroken and wasn’t ... wasn’t there for me or to back up my claims that we were lovers. Father disowned Jonghyun and they were going to banish him, but they said he killed himself instead and it’s all my fault because I ...”

“Shh,” Key says and hugs him from behind, lips against his neck. “It isn’t your fault, precious, beautiful, darling. It isn’t your fault. It’s your father’s fault for not listening to you. It isn’t your fault. He took away someone you love.”

“Jonghyun ... he ... he was my Master and my lover and my brother and my ... my everything. I haven’t ... I don’t know what to do without him. Jinki won’t even look at me any more because he was so in love with Jonghyun and I think he blames me too. And I can’t ... I can’t be in business, or in school, and I can’t be here. I hate it here so much. I can’t be ... normal.”

“When did this happen?”

Taemin swallows. “Two years ago.”

“It’s okay to still be angry and sad about it,” Key whispers. “It really is. It’s not your fault.”

“I ... I thought ... I thought you were going to just ... be a lot meaner ... than you were. I thought you were going to tie me up and fuck me with my toys and then be done, but you were so nice and ... only Jonghyun has ever been that nice to me.”

“I wouldn’t let you come, spanked your ass raw and choked you and that was nice?”

Taemin chuckles. “Yes. Because you also played with me and edged me and wouldn’t let me come. That’s really, really nice. The men who fuck me at the office just fling me over a desk and do what they want.”

Key’s nostrils flare at the admission. Fuck them all. “And now you want me to stay?”

“I want anyone to stay.”

Key understands that. The poor guy is love deprived and emotionally fucked up. “I’m sorry. I can’t stay.”

“I know.”

“And it isn’t because of you,” Key says and bites at his neck to emphasize it. “It isn’t because of you, it’s because I can’t see myself in a house again, caged in by four walls, and I’m banished. I have a scar on my face. I can’t let it be seen or be seen by anyone.”

Taemin sighs and they settle back into the cooling water. “Thanks for taking care of me.”

Key smiles against his shoulder and tightens his hold around his waist. “You deserve it.”

The water is cold when they finally climb out, dry off and bundle up in the robes. Key rips the dirty sheets off the bed and they lay on the bare mattress with only the comforter over and under them. They’re rolled up in it like kimbap.

“Will you stay with me until I fall asleep?” Taemin whispers, the first words uttered between them since the bathroom.

Key nods and curls more tightly around him. “I’m going to stay and sleep if that’s okay. It’s been a long time since I was in an actual bed.”

Taemin kisses his cheek. “Good night.”

“Good night,” Key says even though the night out the windows is dimming as the sun rises.

\---

Key wakes up to Taemin sliding onto his dick, a smile on his face when Key groans, but he doesn’t protest, not at all. He has no idea what time it is or where he is or what is going on except that Taemin is bouncing on his lap and his dick is sliding into a tighter, wetter, hotter body than the night before, and it’s really not fair. He grips Taemin’s hips and curses him out as his body shudders through a-barely-awake-but-wow-that-was-intense-and-now-I’m-awake orgasm.

“Hi,” Taemin says and sits flush with his body, Key still buried inside him.

Key scoffs and gasps. “Hi. Fuck.” He reaches up and tugs at the ring on the collar.

Taemin’s eyes shut, his breath flutters. “I didn’t want to wake you, but the servants are returning soon.”

Key huffs and sits up, his dick still inside Taemin. Their arms wrap around each other, and Key buries his face in Taemin’s neck. He breathes.

Key doesn’t want to leave, but how much of that is because of Taemin and how much of that is because he can smell coffee and the bed is soft and there’s probably food too?

“I really like your dick,” Taemin says and Key snorts out a laugh. “Seriously, it’s curved right at the end, and like this, it’s against my prostate and that just feels so good.”

Key pulls his head back and doesn’t stop Taemin from kissing him, from pushing him back to the bed, from riding him, touching him, and bringing them both off.

Taemin is reluctant to let him up, but eventually they shower and eat breakfast, but maybe dinner depending on the time, and Key dresses in Taemin’s clothes. The pants are tight on him and the T-shirt even more so, but he doesn’t mind, actually prefers it that way. There’s less of a chance of it getting caught on something when he’s running. Taemin wears a pair of shorts and a tanktop long enough to walk across the estate and lead Key to the Wall where he can climb up the ladder.

Shadowed at the base of Key’s life, they hold each other and Key lets him Taemin cling for a little longer. It’s not like he’s on a schedule.

“Come back?” Taemin whispers.

“I will.”

Taemin nods and then finally pulls away. Not too far. Just far enough for a short kiss. His smile is fleeting, he squeezes Key’s hands and then lets go and turns away.

Key wants to say something, about Taemin staying strong, but it’s probably too late. Taemin doesn’t have the support around him to stay strong. He just has enough to survive. Even that is debatable.

Key doesn’t say anything and heads up the ladder. When he gets to the top, he doesn’t look down. He heads for the smaller wall so he can gather up his stuff. He can’t keep going south, not enough time has passed since the brush with the police. And he definitely can’t stay here. He’ll figure something out. He always does.

\--- 3 months later ---

Key finally feels safe enough to travel along the Wall again. There were too many close calls, too many cameras in front and behind him. He found a small outer building in one estate that was close enough to the Wall for him to hide in for a few weeks. He still feels shaky though as he walks slowly along the Wall, his eyes and ears open for movement or light or sirens.

But he promised Taemin he’d return, so he heads that direction, toward the place that his mind and heart never left, toward the man that he thinks of constantly. It isn’t safe because that means he’s distracted and being distracted on the Wall means death.

When Key arrives in what he knows is the right area, he’s a little confused. There are no lights, which means Taemin isn’t there, but there’s also a hint of smoke in the air.

But the most confusing is the figure sitting on the Wall with his back to the Inside, and his legs dangling into the abyss of the Outside.

Just sitting there, head lowered. Key almost doesn’t see him. And he doesn’t recognize the slump of shoulders or the curve of his leg. Not at first. He stops and just stares. He knows the other hasn’t seen him yet, and it isn’t until he tilts his head back and Key sees the shape of his face in the dark, the curve of his neck, and the obvious dark strip of leather that he realizes that it’s Taemin.

Staggering forward, he makes more noise than he meant, and Taemin looks up in surprise.

“What ...” Key doesn’t finish the question.

Taemin sort of smiles at him in the dark and then pats the wall.

Still mostly frozen, Key falls to his knees and then sits next to him. He keeps his legs folded under him, not hanging down toward death. Taemin leans against him, pressing their shoulders together. When Key doesn’t tell him to move, Taemin settles his head on Key’s shoulder.

“What are you doing up here?” Key finally asks.

His shrug says more than his words.

“Taemin, you can’t--”

Taemin snorts. “That’s what everyone always says. But I can. Obviously, I can.”

“What did you do?” Key asks, suddenly aware of the smell of fire and smoke.

“Burned. It’s gone. Burned it down.”

“You burned down your house?”

Taemin inhales. “Yes.”

“But-”

“I sent the servants out. I meant ... I meant to die in there, to just breathe it all in and hope that Jonghyun is waiting for me somewhere, but then ... I couldn’t do it. I was looking out the window and saw the Wall and thought about you and thought about ... you’re the only person I have ever met that is actually free. You’re free to do whatever the fuck you want.”

“That isn’t even close to being true. Don’t say stupid shit.”

Taemin chuckles. “It’s kind of true.”

“Okay, kind of true, but ... what ... what are you doing?”

“I don’t know. I just sat here after the fire and the fire department couldn’t stop it because I made sure it was set properly and the house is gone, but they thought I was inside, so I think they think I’m dead. No one came to check the Wall, or beyond the Wall. I stayed in your little hammock and watched them rifle through the ashes today. I told myself that if you didn’t come soon I’d either jump off or I’d try to find you. I mean, it’s the Wall, how hard can it be to find a person on the Wall?”

“The police are wondering that same question.”

It is silent for a long time, and then Key says, “Okay. Come on.” He stands up and brushes off his jeans.

“What?”

“Come on,” Key says and holds out his hand. “You want to live on the Wall. You asked me to come back. I’m asking you to come with me.”

“Really?”

Key nods. “Really. You can always jump off, but you can come with me. The first thing you have to learn is silence. Even having this conversation with you is dangerous because you never know where there are cameras. So silence and then ... well, we walk.”

Taemin stares at him for a moment and then takes his hand and lets Key help him to his feet. Key is on his ways to turn around when Taemin grips the back of his neck and presses a kiss to his lips.

Key smiles into the kiss and returns it with a hand on his waist. There’s something under his shirt and Key slides his hands under to investigate. Leather, rings, warmth. A harness, right up against his skin.

Taemin smiles as he pulls away. “I’ve been wearing it since I saw you wear yours. It’s ... comforting.”

Key nods. “Different for you though, but yes, it is. Anything else you got on or inside your body that I should be worried about?”

“No. Just in my bag. I brought some essentials.”

“So food.”

“Well, not that kind of essentials.”

“You’ll learn that food is the only kind of essentials.”

“And we’ll use my essentials to take our minds off being hungry.”

Key shakes his head. “Quiet. Silence, remember.”

“I can be quiet.” He winks.

“I can’t." Key winks back. "Now shut up and follow me.” Key hooks his fingers into the ring on Taemin’s collar and pulls lightly as he walks away.

Taemin smiles at him and follows.


End file.
